Now with more whine

First, let me apologize for not posting.  I have been sick since last week Tuesday with what I think is just a cold, but who knows.  I am exhausted.  I stayed home from work most of last week, and a few hours this week, but there is work to be done, since it is mid term exam time here.  My schedule beyond work is just plain crazy making.  Last week, besides being sick, I had a spinning class Tuesday evening in Neenah at Yarns by Design, Knit Night on Wednesday, and a hair appointment Thursday evening.  I could have gone to a dinner on Sunday evening, but didn't because I was too tired and I didn't think people would have appreciated me breathing on them.  This week I had the second of two spinning classes on Tuesday, Knit Night Wednesday, rehearsal for our church's Hallowed House this evening, the first night of the Hallowed House tomorrow evening and the last night of the Hallowed House Sunday evening.  All I want to do is stay home--no one wants me to. 

I'll start with my spinning class and work on from there. 

Here we see the Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel I am renting from the yarn store all ready for it's trip to my second class:

The class was fun and really helpful, even though I wanted nothing better than to be at home in my recliner while I was there.  Here's a picture of my first skein of yarn:

It ended up on the super bulky side--all 29 yards of it.  If I can reproduce the weight, I'll be making a hat with this.  It's really squooshy yarn, made with Northern Lights 100% wool pencil roving in the Forest Glade colorway.  I'm still working on the laceweight stuff on my spindle.  It's a long work in progress, but it is going to be really pretty yarn.  I did have a smackdown spindle spinning challenge from the woman who was teaching the spinning class which I declined.  I was too sick to enjoy it.

Moving right along, here are some scenes from last night's Knit Night:

Here's Vicki hiding behind a wheel of unspun roving that she is making a gorgeous sweater out of. (You can see it on her lap)

Here's a really good shot of Vicki's Lloie cardigan.  It's so pretty.

Margaret brought festive Halloween decorations with her!

Our discussion was interesting last night at Knit Night.  It included tales of a Hanukkah driedel drinking game. 

I finished my shawl last week:

I need to take a better picture of this.  It did turn out pretty.  I will admit that I was tired of it by the end.

I have moved on to socks now.

These are pumpkin socks.  The pattern is Little Pumpkins socks. 

The pattern is pretty cute.  Paulette and I are having an unintentional knit along on this pattern.  We didn't plan it, honest.

I leave you now with a pretty picture of our dogwood bush in the backyard in all it's fall finery:

How much can you cram into a weekend?

This weekend was a busy one.  The day dawned early on Saturday, with Churchill playing with a jingly toy in the living room.  I guess it was time for me to get up, at least in his eyes. 

Paulette and I went to be nosy at the TEA party that was being held at the courthouse at 10AM on Saturday in Oshkosh.  The Oshkosh Northwestern estimated the crowd at hundreds.  Our estimate was closer to 150-200.  They weren't very enthusiastic.  It was ironic that they were holding an anti-tax tally outside of the courthouse, which the last time I checked is a taxpayer-supported institution.  Whatever.  Mother Nature provided a nice touch by trying to freeze them out and snowing on them.  I saw Michelle Litjens, former Winnebago County Republican Party chair there.  She thought it was really funny that I was looking for our members (both union and Democratic Party) there.  I gotta do what I gotta do.  We could only stand the BS for about 10 minutes.  When we left, we had to walk past the generator that was providing the power for their microphones.  It was sputtering.  Paulette thought that was real funny.

Our next stop on Saturday was the Little Farmer Apple Orchard on Hwy 151 on the other side of Lake Winnebago outside of Fond du Lac.  When we were leaving Oshkosh on Hwy 45, it started to snow fairly hard.  Weird weather for October 10.  Paulette wondered out loud if there would be less crowds at the apple orchard because it was snowing.  Not a chance.  It was still a zoo there.  This place reminds me of the pumpkin farm on the TLC tv show, Little People, Big World.  It was still snowing when we got there.  Fortunately they have an indoor marketplace where you can buy already picked apples and all sorts of other fall-y stuff.  I bought:  apples for my sister Donna (I'll get them to you on Sunday!), a pumpkin cream cheese muffin that was to become my lunch, roasted pumpkin seeds and black popcorn.    The lines were still pretty long to both get baked goods and pay for your your purchases.  The lines kind of remind me of the lines to pay when you shop on Black Friday after Thanksgiving.  We ate our muffins in the car and then we were off to our next destination.  By the time we left, the sun was out.  It was still really cold.

We chose to drive up the Hwy 151 side of Lake Winnebago to see the fall colors on our way up to Neenah, where I had to pay the fee for the spinning class I am taking later this month.  It was a beautiful drive.  Yes, there's road construction, and they were working in some spots, but I could stay on 151 the whole time, until I had to take the fork in the road to Hwy 55.  I bought some lovely orange yarn to make a fall scarf at Yarns by Design:

We then proceeded onto our next destination, Fox River Mall, where I needed toner from the Clinique counter.  I also wanted to look around at the stuff at Bath and Body Works and Yankee Candle.  We looked at the clothing and stuff at Younkers to scope out what we wanted to buy on sale later in the week.   Woo hoo, shopping!

We had grocery store stuff to do when we got back home, and of course, Starbucks.

Our last destination for the day was a house warming party at fellow knit night knitter, Jodi's house.  Paulette works with her husband in Polk Library.  It was nice. 

I finally got to knit in the evening.

On Sunday, we went to church and then the pumpkin farm!  We bought many pumpkins and cornstalks.

Here is Churchill checking out the pumpkin bounty:

He was hard to take a picture of because he kept running around on the table.

We then had the cleaning inside the house to do and Paulette wanted to cut the grass.   I did manage to get a little knitting done in the evening.  Maybe more can be accomplished this evening. 

Win some, lose some

Unfortunately, our Green Bay Packers lost to the Vikings last night. Sigh. It was a good game, though. And they didn't get wiped all over the field like some probably thought would happen. Take that, Brent Favre.

Here's a YouTube video on the subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxAE_Xup_OY

On the knitting front, I got my socks all done:



I also sold three copies of the pattern to Phyllis at Iris Fine Yarns. Yay!

I now am knitting another shawl, the Diamond Fantasy shawl by Sivia Harding.

Here's how far I am:



I'm adding beads in the middle of each diamond, which is not really visible in the picture. It's really pretty in person.

I do feel sweater knitting coming on this winter, though.....stay tuned.